From Abu Dhabi schoolboy to Bollywood hitmaker: Benny Dayal on hustling in India, UAE homecoming and refusing to chase relevance

Dubai: Before Benny Dayal became the voice behind some of Bollywood’s most infectious songs, before Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman came calling and before arenas and millions of listeners became part of his musical universe, he was an Abu Dhabi schoolboy.

And apparently, that explains quite a lot about him.

“I think I also owe a lot of it to Abu Dhabi as my hometown, because I feel every Abu Dhabi kid is a very different kid,” Benny told Gulf News. And his take?

“Abu Dhabi kids can actually survive anywhere they go.”

Coming from a singer who left the relative comfort of the UAE and managed to carve out a Bollywood playback singing career in one of the most brutally competitive entertainment industries in the world, perhaps he has earned the right to say it.

“We are all hustlers and Abu Dhabi prepares you for that,” he said.

Benny is now returning to the UAE for Thaalam Beats at Coca-Cola Arena on August 15, alongside Usha Uthup and Thaikkudam Bridge. But for the Abu Dhabi-bred singer, this gig feels different. It isn't simply another stop on the touring calendar. It feels closer to a homecoming and a chance to show UAE audiences a Benny Dayal they haven't fully seen before.

“I think this will be my biggest show ever in Dubai in a venue like Coca-Cola Arena,” he said.

“I’ve always come with Mr A.R. Rahman and, you know, done smaller, sizeable concerts and not big arenas or anything. And I think it’s high time that the audience in UAE are going to witness my full-throttle concert.”

From Abu Dhabi to an industry of 1.4 billion

So how would he describe his climb to stardom in India?

“It’s not easy. The hustle is not easy,” he said.

Then he puts the scale of his achievement into perspective.

“We are living in a country with 1.4 billion people, and amidst them to be recognised by the greatest composer of the country, and to work with them, and be respected by many millions of people, and to have a body of work … is the most beautiful thing, and I’m ever so grateful.”

But when he traces the foundations of that journey, he keeps returning to Abu Dhabi.

His memories aren't of some tortured prodigy skipping school to chase music. Quite the opposite.

“My school was also a brilliant school. I loved going to school. I don’t have bad attendance ever. I never missed school as much, and I had no choice because my parents wouldn’t let me.”

“My parents were amazing, my teachers were amazing, my school was amazing, and I love Abu Dhabi. So it was good as it gets for me."

‘I’m a purebred Malayali’

Apart from his love for the UAE, there is another part of Dayal’s identity that regularly causes confusion. People apparently don't always realise that Benny Dayal is Malayali.

“Despite being a Malayali, I’ve not lived much in Kerala, but I’m a purebred Malayali,” he said.

“I can speak Malayalam really well, sing … and criticise and everything in Malayalam.”

He laughs about Malayalis meeting him and automatically switching to Hindi or English, unaware that he understands perfectly well what is being said.

It is almost fitting for a performer who doesn't particularly enjoy labels.

Benny is Malayali by heritage, Abu Dhabi-raised and an Indian playback singer whose music has travelled globally. And he hates labels and being put in a box.

‘They’ve not seen my full potential’

And he has earned that street credit by working with some of the best including AR Rahman. Dayal speaks warmly about performing with A.R. Rahman, the composer who played such an important role in his career.

“I love being on stage with Sir, and I’ve learned so much from him. It’s never, never going to take away,” he said.

But he also makes an interesting distinction.

When UAE audiences have watched him as part of a Rahman concert, they have essentially watched one chapter of his musical career.

“That’s the only way people have seen me, and they’ve not seen my pure, full potential because over there it’s four or five songs and we’re all sharing stage,” Benny said.

“It’s not my full show. It’s not my complete body of work. It’s only Mr Rahman’s songs.”

“I’ve also worked with many other composers and I’ve done a lot of other work and I want to showcase that.”

And if you are planning to sit politely through it, think again.

Benny doesn't want you sitting down

Also, Dayal wants to dismantle what he sees as a certain kind of Indian concert-going culture.

“I want to break a lot of stereotypes! It’s not like it needed to be a sit-down show and I will guarantee that."

He wants the energy audiences bring to Coldplay, Backstreet Boys, rappers and rock bands -- standing, dancing, engaging with the artist rather than simply observing.

“Even if they have seats, I don’t want you to be seated,” he said. “I want them to be standing and grooving and having a great time.”

Don't call it just a South Indian festival

Benny is equally determined not to squeeze Thaalam Beats into a regional box.

“I would say this is a celebration of South Indian excellence in Indian music,” he said.

There is a difference.

“If you look at Usha Ji, Thaikkudam Bridge and myself, we are three acts who have global listeners. So it’s not just Indian listeners alone.”

His admiration for Usha Uthup runs particularly deep.

“She is the reason that attracted me to taking up singing so many languages,” Benny said.

He remembers watching her perform as a child, moving effortlessly between Indian languages and then tackling everything from French to Arabic.

“She’s the first ever female performer rock star of India,” he declared.

‘Don’t try to be cool. You’re cool’

At this point in his career, Benny seems remarkably uninterested in the exhausting business of trying to appear relevant.

Even when confronted with that most modern of compliments like being told he has “rizz”, he isn't particularly moved.

“If they think I’ve got rizz, I’ve got rizz and honestly, I don’t use these Gen Z terms.”

“I don’t think I’m anything. Even if I’m a millennial or a ’90s kid or a Boomer or whatever it is, I’m just doing me.”

And then he casually delivers a line that belongs on a T-shirt.

“Don’t try to be cool. You’re cool. As simple as that.”

Benny has similar contempt for society’s obsession with deciding what somebody should be doing at a particular age.

“Don’t let anyone put you in a box,” he said.

“People said, ‘Oh, you’ve come to this age, don’t you think you should be doing this? And you’ve come to this age, don’t you think you should be doing that?’ And I’m like, ‘Who are you?’”

“I still have youth in me, man. I want to do what I want to do.”

And no, AI doesn't frighten him

Nor is Benny particularly terrified that artificial intelligence is coming for musicians.

“I don’t fear AI, to be very honest,” he said.

His faith rests in something decidedly analogue: human emotion.

“The greatest power a human being has is his mind and his heart and his brain, which is real.”

AI can imitate or build on what already exists, he argues, but it cannot anticipate the lived emotional experience that produces an original piece of art.

“After I write that song, probably AI can write a referential song because it exists.”

But the original feeling?

That still has to come from somewhere human.

Bollywood politics? He's staying out of it

Perhaps more surprising is Benny's approach to the politics and favouritism that inevitably come with a competitive entertainment industry.

“I’m not a part of any of it,” he said.

“I just make sure that I’m placed at something with pure merit and no favouritism, and if somebody is doing better than me, it’s good for them.”

“Everybody has their time.”

And Benny has developed his own amendment to one of life's most overused consolations.

“This too shall pass, but it shall come back again too.”

Careers, songs and popularity, he believes, are cyclical.

“We have no control over anything,” he said. “We only have control over our actions at that very moment.”

Perhaps he has evidence.

Many of Benny’s best-known songs are now more than a decade old, yet audiences continue demanding them.

“The good part? I’m still able to perform them with people demanding me to sing those songs, which is what makes it cool. The recall power is brilliant."

The Abu Dhabi boy comes back

There is an appealing symmetry to Dayal now stepping onto the Coca-Cola Arena stage.

He remembers the artists who have performed there before him and understands exactly what that stage represents.

“For me, the kick is that we’re performing in such a great arena where great artists like Maroon 5 and all international amazing artists have performed,” he said.

“And finally you get to get on that same stage and do your thing and bring the people together.”

Yet Benny won't allow even this moment to become some triumphant declaration that he has made it.

When told he appears to have aced the game, he immediately objected.

“No, I haven’t aced anything.”

“I’m still … working on things. Such a work in progress.”

“Always work in progress. We are all works in progress.”